Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON. Geological Society, June 12.—E. Mackenzie Taylor: Base exchange and its bearing on the formation of coal and petroleum. The discovery of a bed of vegetable debris containing both peat and fusain under a layer of alkaline soil in Egypt led to the investigation of the effects of the presence of sodium-clay upon the decomposition of organic matter by bacteria. The alkaline soil was shown to be a sodium-clay produced by base exchange between the clay and solutions of sodium chloride. As the result of hydrolysis, a continuously alkaline medium under anaerobic conditions was produced in which continuous bacterial action is possible as the acidic products of such action do not accumulate. Lignocellulose decomposes under these conditions, yielding a material with fusain properties. The decomposition of proteins and fats takes place in the alkaline medium, and, in addition, it has been found possible to decompose free organic acids by bacteria under these conditions. It was suggested that coal and petroleum have both resulted from the decomposition of organic matter by bacteria, under the alkaline anaerobic conditions provided by strata which have undergone base exchange with solutions of sodium salts and subsequent hydrolysis in fresh water. The conditions provided by such strata are favourable to continuous bacterial action, to the elimination of oxygen from the material, and to the accumulation of the decomposition products as the result of the sealing of the organic deposit